Iraqi MP: US Supporting Terrorist MKO to Increase Pressures on Iran

A senior Iraqi legislator blasted Washington for supporting terrorist groups around the world, and said the US is using the terrorist Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) as a leverage to pressure the Islamic Republic of Iran.

“The US is using the terrorist MKO as a pressure lever against the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Adnan Seraj told FNA on Monday, adding that the US uses terrorist organizations to attain its goals and policies.

He lambasted Washington’s support for terrorist groups, and expressed surprise that while certain western countries, including the US, have enlisted MKO as a terrorist organization, the White House is still a staunch supporter of the terrorist group and helps it with whatever measures it can adopt.

Earlier reports said that American statesmen heightened their efforts to delist the MKO from the US list of terrorist groups after the US failed to rally support for an attack on the Islamic Republic of Iran.

According to a report published by the Habilian website, the official website of Iran’s Habilian Association – a human rights group formed by the families of 17,000 terror victims in Iran – a group of the US congressmen have asked the administration to take the MKO off Washington’s list of terrorist groups and increase efforts to keep its terrorist elements in Iraq.

The US congressmen further reminded the close and friendly relations between the Iranian and Iraqi governments, and stressed that the US should protect the group and prevent expulsion of its members from Camp Ashraf in Northern Iraq.

The Iraqi government eventually forced members of the MKO out of their main training camp in the Northern Diyala province.

According to reports, one of the ringleaders of the MKO announced that the MKO was about to start relocating its members from their headquarters to a new place in Iraq.

He added that the first group of MKO members were about to be transferred to a new place specified by the Iraqi government.

Iraqi Government Spokesman Ali Al-Dabbaq stressed on Wednesday that Baghdad has not extended the presence of the anti-Iran terrorist Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) in Iraq, dismissing western media reports in this regard.

“The deadline for MKO’s presence on Iraq’s soil has not been extended but the way they will leave Iraq has changed and will take place in two phases,” Dabbaq stated.

“Based on the agreements made with the UN, the MKO members will leave Iraq’s soil in two phases, they will be relocated to Camp Liberty and then leave the Iraqi soil from the camp,” Dabbaq said.

“As we have earlier announced, the MKO members will leave Camp Ashraf (now the Camp of New Iraq) by the end of 2011,” Dabbaq underscored.

Based on UN proposal, the MKO members will be moved to Camp Liberty base, the US former base near Baghdad’s airport.

Since the beginning of this year, the Baghdad government has repeatedly assured Iranian officials and people that it is determined to expel the MKO from Iraq by the end of 2011.

Meantime, a report in December disclosed that the main leader of the MKO, Massoud Rajavi, in remarks interpreted as informally declaring war on Iraq cautioned that he would not allow Baghdad to expel the group from Iraq, and stressed that he will keep the MKO in the country even if it costs the lives of all the group members.

According to a report published by the Habilian website, Rajavi has ordered the commanders of Camp Ashraf (the MKO’s main training center located in Iraq’s Northern Diyala province) to be ready to resist against the Iraqi forces, saying that it would not matter if all Camp residents are killed for obtaining his desired goals.

He also ordered his commanders to strengthen the military positions at the camp and in the surrounding areas by erecting numerous bulwarks and hurdles around the Camp and be ready for a war with the Iraqi government.

The MKO has been in Iraq’s Diyala province since the 1980s.

The MKO, whose main stronghold is in Iraq, is blacklisted by much of the international community, including the United States.

The MKO is behind a slew of assassinations and bombings inside Iran, a number of EU parliamentarians said in a recent letter in which they slammed a British court decision to remove the MKO from the British terror list. The EU officials also added that the group has no public support within Iran because of their role in helping Saddam Hussein in the Iraqi imposed war on Iran (1980-1988).

The group started assassination of the citizens and officials after the revolution in a bid to take control of the newly established Islamic Republic. It killed several of Iran’s new leaders in the early years after the revolution, including the then President, Mohammad Ali Rajayee, Prime Minister, Mohammad Javad Bahonar and the Judiciary Chief, Mohammad Hossein Beheshti who were killed in bomb attacks by MKO members in 1981.

The group fled to Iraq in 1986, where it was protected by Saddam Hussein and where it helped the Iraqi dictator suppress Shiite and Kurd uprisings in the country.

The terrorist group joined Saddam’s army during the Iraqi imposed war on Iran (1980-1988) and helped Saddam and killed thousands of Iranian civilians and soldiers during the US-backed Iraqi imposed war on Iran.

Since the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, the group, which now adheres to a pro-free-market philosophy, has been strongly backed by neo-conservatives in the United States, who also argue for the MKO to be taken off the US terror list.